


(Devil Doesn’t Want Us and) Heaven’s Bouncers Won’t Let Us In

by Saral_Hylor



Series: 25 Seconds 'verse [2]
Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers (Comic), The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Canon Typical Violence, Comic Book Science, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mortality Challenged Characters, Pre-Slash, Temporary Character Death, they got better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:04:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 10,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saral_Hylor/pseuds/Saral_Hylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They walked away from the crater that had been the Port of LA.<br/>They shouldn't have walked away. There was nothing left to walk away from. </p><p>They walked away, but their sights are still set on Max. </p><p>And even death won't stop them from getting revenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vigil

**Author's Note:**

> The second installment for the 25 Seconds 'verse. 
> 
> Another story that takes inspiration from the song 25 Seconds by Mandy Kane. 
> 
> Beta'd by the gorgeous quandong_crumble, who put up with me going on and on about a song she hadn't heard, pointed out where I could build better tension, gave cheeky suggestions, and generally put up with my over-enthusiasm towards this story and read each little bit along the way as I sent them to her.

Cougar sat vigil that night, the cold and damp had set in early, sending the rest of the Losers to seek shelter in the back of the van. With his back against one tyre, hat tipped down over his eyes, he huddled inside his jacket. He didn’t want to look at the body laid out on the ground a few feet away; too still and silent and so different from what it had been like in life. He didn’t want to see those blue eyes clouded over with death, the skin that was too pale, the mouth that was slack and unsmiling. He didn’t want to see the broad chest that had been ripped apart with bullets. So he shielded his eyes behind his hat and just listened.

The night itself was far from silent, the subtle whisper of a breeze, the soft movements of nocturnal creatures through the surrounding landscape. It all fell unnaturally quiet; setting the sniper on edge, he knew what was coming, but braced himself all the same, waiting for the first sign.

That first ragged, painful breath echoed through the cold night, causing Cougar to flinch in spite of himself. There was a suspended moment of silence before another agonised breath, followed by a pitiful groan. The sniper finally let himself relax, but did not look up.

“Aww, fuck, that one hurt.” Jensen rasped, blinking up at the starry sky, one hand coming up to rub the phantom ache from his chest. He knew Cougar was there, without even looking. Cougar was always there. He also knew that Cougar would be giving him the cold shoulder again; he said what he knew the sniper would not be able to ignore.  “But hell it was fun, should definitely do that again.”

The sharp kick was well aimed, catching the hacker in one numb thigh, causing him to squawk and try to roll away. Cougar straightened his hat up in order to glare at the blond haired man, knowing it was safe to look at him now that he was whole and alive again.

Jensen slowly sat up, trying to stretch the cold out of his body. “Jeez, you guys just dumped me here out in the cold. Bloody lovely that is. If I catch pneumonia now and die, I’ll be pissed off.”

The sniper just glared, which was nothing unusual, it was the greeting Jensen usually got. Grinning in response, the hacker dragged himself over to the other man, still waiting for the pins and needles to fade from the lower half of his body. Dropping onto his back, head rested in Cougar’s lap, he smiled at him in the most innocent fashion he could manage until the glare faltered marginally, the worry lines on his forehead relaxing.

“It’s not like I meant it to happen, this time anyway. Don’t have to be such a grumpy kitty, anyone would think you missed me.” Jensen rubbed at his chest again, the lingering pain making him expect for his hand to come away slick with blood. “Could have changed my shirt for me though, you fucker. Do you know how uncomfortable blood stiffened clothes are? No, never mind, of course you do, I’m not the only dumbass to get shot, now am I? But for some reason, I’m the only one who gets given a hard time about it.”

Cougar let himself relax, turning his face away from the smiling idiot. It was true; they’d all been shot, and hadn’t always survived. “You die more than the rest of us. That was eight. Next time, you might not come back.”

“Such a spoil sport, Cougs.” Jensen huffed, rolling his eyes. “Now, you’re either going hafta gay up and cuddle me, or help me into the van, ‘cause I’m freezing my nuts off. You know, dead, lack of blood flow, and being left outside in the middle of winter, not fun.”

Cougar scowled in response, pushing the hacker off of him in order to stand up. After stretching his own stiff muscles, he helped Jensen to his feet, not surprised when he ended up bearing most of the other man’s weight.

“Sorry, dude, legs are still waking up.” Jensen’s smile said he was anything but sorry, eyes bright as he let himself be propped up against the side of the van as Cougar opened the door.

The rest of the Losers looked over as the door opened, each looking relieved in their own way at the sight of the hacker.

Jensen beamed at them, practically falling into the back of the van and dragging himself into a relatively comfortable position, leaving enough space for Cougar to sit next to him. “No need to worry, guys, I’m back, larger than life and twice as beautiful.  Good as new! Though no thanks to you lot. It’s cold out there, and all you wimps are hiding out in here hogging all the blankets. Don’t expect me to take care of you next time it’s one of you that's corpse-a-fied.”

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Roque hurled a blanket at his face, growling “Why does he have to get more annoying each time?”


	2. Mysteries of the Unexplained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backtracking to where this all began. 
> 
> The Port of LA.

They’d walked away from the crater that had been the Port of LA after Clay had been unsuccessful in retrieving the remote pressure trigger.

They shouldn’t have walked away. There was nothing left to walk away from.

It was put down as sheer dumb luck, or a ‘mystery of the unexplained’ as Jensen delightfully dubbed it. Things had gone on, Pooch had made it in time to witness the birth of his son, Jensen had dragged the whole team along to watch a Petunias game, and then they were back to it again. Despite Roque’s betrayal it was better than before, Clay acted like a soldier again, Pooch had his life back, Cougar stopped distancing himself and didn’t need as much proof that they were alive, and Jensen stopped grinning like a dead man.

The hacker had been the first to go down, taking a bullet to the back of the head when he’d infiltrated the server room of another company they’d linked to Max. They’d managed to get in and retrieve his body.

They were on their way back to the old warehouse they’d been holed up in when _it_ happened. Jensen’s body was in the back of the van; they had no idea what to do with it, they were all still legally dead, but they couldn’t just leave him there, or bury him in some abandoned lot. In any case, as Pooch pointed out, his sister and niece had the right to make a decision on what would become of the remains.

None of them spoke, not even Aisha; they all sat silently, Pooch concentrating on driving as though his life depended on it. Cougar had Jensen’s glasses in his breast pocket, the blood splattered laptop cradled against his chest.

The noise of the engine drowned out the first gasp for air, and the following small noises of pain. They were all so intent on not looking at the body that they didn’t notice the first movements. Nothing drowned out the indignant exclamation that followed.

“Ow, shit, my head!”

Pooch swore, jerked the wheel, sending the van swerving to one side, it mounted the kerb and came to a sudden halt. They scrambled out of the van, Aisha and Clay drawing guns and rounding on the back of the vehicle, pulling the doors open.

Jensen lay where they had placed him, touching the back of his head carefully, blinking up at them, eyes unfocused. “What the hell happened? Please don’t tell me I did something lame like fainted and smacked my head.”

Cougar stood there, frozen in place, because people didn’t just wake up from a bullet to the back of the head. He crossed himself instinctively; the movement caught the hacker’s attention, eyes squinting as he tried to make out their forms. The sniper acted on impulse, fishing the glasses out of his pocket and handing them over.

Glasses on and able to see again, Jensen glanced around at them, eyes going wide at the sight of the guns Aisha and Clay had trained on him, confusion printed clearly across his face. He raised his hands cautiously in surrender. “Okay, what’s going on? Whatever it was, it wasn’t my fault this time, I promise.”

Clay cleared his throat, Pooch made a sound as though he was about to talk then changed his mind, but it was Cougar who actually spoke first.

“You died.”

“Uh, did not.” Jensen’s face creased further in confusion, but he made no move to sit up or get out of the van.

“Yes, you did.” Aisha countered, hands tensing around the gun slightly. “You got shot in the head, your brains blew out the front of your skull. You were dead.”

The thoughts seemed to process through the hacker’s, now whole, brain, before he offered, with mock helpfulness, “I got better?”

 

They weren't sure what caused it, but Jensen had been dead, and was suddenly alive again. His head was pounding; it was almost a relief when he promptly went to sleep when they finally got back. Cougar hovered around him, checking vital signs every half hour, while Clay, Pooch and Aisha put their heads together trying to figure out what had happened.

A few hours later Jensen was up and about again, as though nothing had happened. He didn't really believe them until he went to use his laptop again.

"Oh my god! There are brains in my keyboard!"


	3. The Certainty of Life is Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because shit happens, and it is really a miracle that none of them have died before now.

Clay’s first death was during a bar fight in a town in Mexico. They’d retreated over the border to let things cool off a bit following Jensen’s first death, Pooch opting to head off with Jolene and the baby instead. It was supposed to be a couple of weeks downtime, to rest and recuperate, though Jensen spent the entire time hunched over his laptop trying to find a plausible reason for what had happened. Apparently ‘because I’m too awesome for death’ was not a good enough reason in anyone’s eyes except his own.

He’d still been hunched over the laptop when Aisha and Cougar returned to their motel room, carrying a lifeless Clay between them. There was blood all the way down the front of his shirt, a jagged gash across his throat, courtesy of a broken bottle. They lay him down on the bed and waited, watching; Cougar muttering prayers in Spanish under his breath, Aisha pacing at the end of the bed, flicking a small knife over and over in her hand. Jensen kept his fingers on Clay’s wrist, waiting for the first a sign of a pulse.

As they watched, the wound on his neck knit itself back together, the skin pulling seamlessly back into place. A weak pulse fluttered beneath Jensen’s fingers and then the former Colonel drew in a ragged breath, choked, then breathed again, his eyes snapping open and hands going to his throat. The moment of panic ended when his hands came away clean of blood; questioning eyes sought out Jensen’s, searching for clarification. The hacker shrugged, grinned and gave the older man an O.K sign.

 

 

A stray bullet through the windscreen took Pooch in the chest as they made a getaway a month later. The vehicle swerved wildly until Cougar lunged over from the passenger seat, abandoning his rifle in favour of grabbing the steering wheel. Jensen reached under the sniper, dragging their driver out of the way so Cougar could drop into the driver’s seat. They drove like that, with Pooch half dragged out of the seat, one leg still in the foot well, Cougar wedged in beside him, Jensen’s hands pushed tightly against his chest in an attempt to stem the flow of blood.

In the chaos of it all, they hadn’t even noticed he’d died until they’d finally got to their safe house; the four of them were still running on an adrenaline high as they carted Pooch in side, setting him down on the kitchen floor to wait it out. He came back spluttering and demanding to know whose lousy-arse driving got him killed.

 

 

Aisha didn’t tell them what had happened to her the first time. They found her in the aftermath, pale and numb, slumped against a wall, gun in her lap, eyes deadly as ever. She refused to say what had happened, and initially fought off the offer of help until it became evident that she could not move by herself.

They discussed the similarities in hushed tones as Clay and Jensen helped Aisha along, Cougar covering them, as they made their way to where Pooch was picking them up. There seemed to be a lingering pain afterwards, that’d hang around for hours, despite the fast healing, and numbness, pins and needles, in the body, though the time until recovery varied.

 

 

Cougar was better at staying alive than the rest of them, you had to find a sniper to kill him after all. Jensen, who had a severe lack of self-preservation beforehand, became more reckless, dying twice – the second time being yet another run in with a bullet a month after Aisha died – while the sniper was still on zero.


	4. We Meet Again, Old Friend

Roque reappeared four months after the clusterfuck that was the Port of LA. He walked into the abandoned hanger they were using as a base, claiming to be unarmed, and offering to give them information on Max.

They declined.

By shooting him.

Clay sat with his corpse until Roque drew his first breath, and then he shot him point blank between the eyes and settled back down to wait again.

When he came to again, the first thing he did was lock eyes with Clay, and start trying to explain himself again. “I didn’t side with Max, I was playing him to try and find out what the fuck was going on.”

Clay lowered his gun, but didn’t put it away. “Then why not tell the rest of us that?”

“Because you never would have gone for it, Clay, all you cared about was getting back at him. You stopped caring about your men, or getting them home. If it wasn’t for that bitch, we’d still be stuck in Bolivia.” Roque groaned as he tried to move. “Jesus, what is up with this shit? You shot me, twice. Why am I alive?”

Clay shrugged, glancing around the hanger at the rest of his team. Pooch busy under the bonnet of the Jeep they were currently using, throwing careful glances their way occasionally. Aisha stood by the doorway, not even hiding the fact she was watching and listening to their conversation. Jensen and Cougar were in the far corner, the sniper sitting on a bench, his rifle across his lap, the hacker on the floor, leaning back against Cougar’s legs, laptop propped on one knee. They were both trying to hide that they were watching.

“We haven’t figured that out yet. With you added into the mix, Jensen thinks it might link back to the Port of LA. None of us should have walked out of that.” Clay trained his eyes back on his former SIC, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not. “You give us decent intel on Max, but you’re staying behind when we go check it out. With one of us. That way, if you’re crossing us again, whoever is left will have fun killing you until you don’t get up again.”

Roque nodded, finally able to sit up again, digging in his pocket, ignoring the way it made Clay’s gun twitch back towards him. “I’ve got several flash drives of stuff I took off him, give it to J and see what he can make of it. Not a set up this time.”

 

 

The information was good; they followed a money trail to a shipping yard that turned out to be the cover for an underground terrorist operation. People with no qualms, and enough money to purchase a snuke off of Max.

They snuck in under the cover of darkness, Cougar setting up on the highest warehouse roof, hunkering down with his rifle to offer surveillance, and covering fire in need be. Pooch waited with the jeep, and a handcuffed Roque, promising only to kill him a little bit. Aisha, Clay and Jensen covered the ground, running the search and destroy operation. The plan was, to find the snuke, disarm it if possible, and then hack up any information that might lead them to Max. In short, it was a ‘give the hacker as much time as he needs and make sure he gets to job done before getting his arse killed’ operation.

Everything ran smoothly to start with, they got in, Jensen got set up and went to work on deactivating the snuke while his laptop was hooked up to the server, syphoning off whatever information it could. Admittedly, it was a terrible position; the room only had one exit point, which Aisha and Clay had set up at.

Things went pear-shaped when a patrol surprised Clay and managed to get a call out before they took him out. The terrorists started to converge on the room, tactical and too well dispersed for Cougar to pick off in time. Jensen was muttering through the comms that he only needed another minute, and then a way out.

The sniper did the best he could, picking off as many of the bad guys as he could, giving away his position. When they returned fire, he shouldered his rifle, and ran across the roof tops, providing a distraction, splitting the enemy in half, giving Clay and Aisha a reasonable number to deal with.

The lucky shot one of the terrorists got in wasn’t what killed Cougar, it clipped him in the thigh just as he was about to make a jump from one roof to another. Clay saw him stumble and tip over the edge, having a moment to almost hope the fall had killed him, rather than leaving him severely injured, before he had to get back to concentrating on the gun fight.

They managed to get out of there, Jensen carrying the sniper’s broken, lifeless body over one shoulder as Clay and Aisha dispatched the last of terrorists standing between them and their ride out of there. None of them commented when Jensen refused any help with Cougar’s body, or questioned him when he piled into the jeep and cradled the smaller man against him.

They were still driving when Cougar came back, quieter than the rest of them, not surprisingly. Jensen more felt the first intake of breath than he heard it, feeling the sniper stir slightly, before his head tipped back and brown eyes stared up at the hacker. A weary salute was the only response Cougar could bother to give to the relieved grin and delighted, slightly manic exclamation of “It’s alive!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roque is back, don't hate me because I don't hate him. 
> 
> Though I definitely like movie Roque better than comic Roque.


	5. Getting Even

Despite the overall success of the mission, that being evidence that Roque hadn’t sold them out, things were pretty tense when they were back in the hanger. It surprised no one when Jensen mostly carried Cougar over to one of the camp beds they had set up, depositing him there before going to retrieve painkillers. The hacker set himself up nearby, pouring over the information he’d gathered, yammering nonstop about how they were all zombies, and by far the most awesome zombies ever, occasionally interrupting himself to make sure the sniper was okay.

Pooch, who had behaved himself the whole time he was ‘babysitting’ Roque, broke the tension by shooting the scarred man in the thigh, excusing it as payback for what had gone down at the Port of LA. After the ensuing yelling match between Clay, Roque, Pooch and Aisha had been stopped by Cougar firing a warning shot in their direction, the hanger had settled into a tense silence. That was ruined when, half an hour later, Roque discover that the bullet wound was completely gone, not even leaving a scar.

This sparked a discussion, mostly Jensen, about ‘how the whole not staying dead gig also translated to a not staying injured thing’. To that, Roque started offering the stab people in the name of experimentation.

 

 

A day later, Roque slit Clay’s throat, because he’d been promising to do that for a long time. When Clay was up and about again he punched Roque in the face, and, remarkably, after that, it seemed as though they were even. Things settled down, and there was an unspoken agreement to work together at least until after they’d finished with Max.


	6. Family Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, sometimes it isn't only the bad guys that can kill you.

After the third time Jensen died, he started keeping a tally sheet, much to his amusement and everyone else’s annoyance.

The third time hadn’t involved bullets, or bad guys, but had been during some unexpected downtime while they waited for information from one of Jensen’s contacts. The hacker had decided to go back home, to visit his sister and niece while he had the chance, since they weren’t far away. He invited Cougar to go along with him, but the sniper declined, opting to stay at the hanger with the rest of the Losers. So, in the end, Pooch offered to give Jensen a lift, drop him off on his way to visit Jolene. 

Three days later, mid-afternoon, Clay got a phone call from Jensen’s phone. It was his sister, Jess, distraught, confused and begging him to tell her what to do.

Jensen was hit by a car. A car that would have hit Beth if he hadn’t thrown her out of the way.

Jess wanted to call the ambulance, but before he died Jensen made her promise not to, because they couldn’t, they weren’t even supposed to be in the country let alone alive. But she couldn’t just leave him in the street.

Clay listened, his heart breaking at the sound of Jess’s stifled sobs and the anguished screams coming from Beth in the background. He knew Jensen would be alright, but that wasn’t the point, his family didn’t know that, and they were the ones who’d witnessed it. He’d had to call families and tell them that one of their loved ones had died before, but this was the first time he’d had a family call him and tell him one of his soldiers had died.

Aisha and Cougar had the car prepped and ready to go before Clay had even got off the phone, after telling Jess to get Jensen somewhere out of sight and they’d be there within the hour.

He’d never seen Cougar drive with such blind violent determination ever before, and Clay couldn’t help but clap the sniper on the shoulder and remind him that Jensen would be okay.

The hasty look that Cougar gave him, quite loudly said ‘But what if he isn’t this time?’

 

 

They got there around the same time Pooch and Jolene arrived from the other direction. Jess had managed to drag her brother’s body into the garage, though from the look she gave Clay when she opened the door for them, a sniffling Beth held tightly in her arms, it was clear she’d never forgive him for making her do that.

Jensen was still dead, but it hadn’t been an hour since the phone call, which meant there was still time. All the same, Cougar dropped to the cement floor beside him, fingers seeking the spot on his wrist where there should have been a pulse, settling in to wait.

Clay didn’t need to see the sniper’s eyes to know what is going through his mind; he would be blaming himself for not going with Jensen to keep him out of trouble, and at the same time, questioning how many times they could die before they stopped getting back up again.

They told Jess and Jolene the truth, because they were not the sort of women that you lied to, and, not surprisingly, were met with a mixture of shocked disbelief and anger. Jess screamed at Clay with an even more colourful vocabulary than her brother, sure that it was some kind of sick joke.

She was still screaming at him, demanding to know what was going on, when Aisha called out that Jensen was up again. Jess fell silent, freezing in place, her face crumpling when the unmistakable sound of her brother’s voice drifted through from the garage.

“Jess? Bethie? You guys okay?”

 

 

They talked about it on the way home, Jensen was initially quiet, so the rest of the car followed suit. About half way back, the hacker broke the silence.

“So, how many times do you think this’ll work?” He asked, staring out the window and doing his best to sound nonchalant.

“ _Qué?”_ Cougar finally responded after no one else had said anything for a while.

“I mean, how many lives do we get? Traditional computer games give you three lives, but I’ve died three times now, so that can’t be it. Five would also make sense. Or nine, since cats have nine lives. Or it could be infinite, but that’s a lot of dying to do to figure that out. What do you reckon? We should start keeping track, don’t you think? Maybe work it out somehow. I still haven’t figured out what caused it, I’m pretty sure that it’s linked to the snuke, but other than disarming one, I haven’t got a whole lot on them. If only we’d been able to take it with us, I could have had a better look at it, maybe figured out what make it tick. Heh, bomb, tick, get it? Ow, Cougs!” Jensen’s rambling stopped abrubtly when Cougar took off his hat and smacked him on the arm with it.

“Son, if you gained some level of self-preservation, you wouldn’t have to worry about how many lives you have. Normally people have one and do their best to take care of it.” Was Clay’s input.

It was quickly followed by a snide remark from Roque, “That’s rich coming from the guy who only choses women capable of killing him.”

“If I had some level of self-preservation, Colonel, I never would have put in with the likes of you lot. I’m more surprised that I haven’t died before now. Guess I’m just that awesome. Ow, Cougs, enough with the hat. I was dead less than an hour ago, you should be fawning all over me, not beating me up, I saw how you had the trembly lip going back there in the garage, admit it, ow, you missed me! Okay, okay, hit me with the hat again and I might start developing a kink for it. Fuck! Ow, no, that doesn’t mean kicking me is an alternative option. Don’t give me that look you self-important fiend, I know what you’re thinking, and no, it was because I’m awesome. Ow, shit, alright, I admit it, the only reason I lived as long as I did, was because you’re awesome and saved my sexy sexy arse all those times. But admit it, you only did that ‘cause you couldn’t bear the thought of your life without me.”

 

The tally sheet that Jensen hung up on the wall of the hanger, right by the door has three strokes by his name, two by both Clay’s and Roque’s, and one each for the rest. It didn’t stay that way for long.


	7. The Cat Who Didn’t Want Nine Lives

Cougar did not adapt to it as well as the rest of them. He didn’t have a blind trust in their new immortality like Jensen did, didn’t take it for granted like Roque did. While the fact that he came back after falling off the warehouse roof didn’t sit well with him, he couldn’t help the relief he felt every time Jensen drew that first ragged breath.

He didn’t want to test to see how often they would be able to come back before it all came to a screeching halt. Just because it wasn’t three times, it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be five, or nine, or any other number for that matter. He didn’t see how Jensen’s logic worked, other than cats having nine lives. They were numbers to focus on though, because they’d been voiced, he still didn’t want to push their luck.  He could only hope that Jensen would see sense and stop putting himself in unnecessary danger.

He didn’t abuse their mysterious new ability like the others, didn’t put himself at any risk he wouldn’t have anyway, and didn’t get careless just because it didn’t matter if he died. He certainly didn’t agree with the idea of killing each other just because of some petty grudge, they had a job to do, and they’d get it done and could go on with their lives after that.

He noticed that the dead man’s grin reappeared on Jensen after being hit by the car. The hacker wouldn’t talk about it, but Cougar was sure it was back because it had made Jensen realise that if it had been Beth, there was no way she’d have come back. It wasn’t his own mortality that he cared for, but for his family’s.

It didn’t help the way Jess had reacted to it. Of course, she’d been grateful that both her daughter and her brother were alive, but it was a lot for someone to take in, and she didn’t trust any of them as much after that. Cougar saw that it was fear that caused it, fear for her brother; she was afraid that he risk his life until he didn’t get to come back.

Cougar knew, because he was afraid of the same thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to show how Cougar was (not) coping, and through him, his observations of Jensen. 
> 
> This very much sets up for the next section. 
> 
> Stay tuned!


	8. Reckless Spiral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for CC. Because recklessness was recognised, so recklessness will be delivered.

Jensen was reckless when they got back from his sister’s, louder, cruder, a general pain in the arse, back chatting Clay, antagonising Aisha and Roque. He pushed all the boundaries he could, and didn’t sleep for days.

Cougar could see the manic, suicidal glint in his eyes, he wasn’t sure if it was going to be more or less dangerous than the times Jensen had gone silent and deadly. He did know, however, that when it ended, it wouldn’t just peter out. It’d be violent, dramatic, and probably explosive.

It came to an abrupt end three days after it started, when Jensen, hyped up on too much caffeine, pale with dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, had pushed Roque just that fraction too far and ended up with a knife between his ribs.

They’d all watched, shocked, as Jensen staggered backwards and coughed blood onto the ground, trying to pull the knife out. In the same second a single shot rang out and Roque’s body hit the ground first, half his head blown away.

Jensen collapsed a moment later, paler than before, staring blankly, taking a few gurgling breaths before everything went silent.

The sniper was there with him, gun still in hand, dragging the hacker into his lap and wrapping a protective arm around his chest before the other three had even moved. The look Cougar gave them stopped Clay from reprimanding him, and Aisha from pointing out that Jensen had had it coming. They chose to leave him alone with Jensen’s body, moving Roque to the other side of the hanger, after he growled at Pooch when he stepped too close.

Cougar sat there the whole time, murmuring prayers in Spanish, fingers pressed against the point just below Jensen’s jaw, waiting for that life affirming pulse to start up again. It reminded him of all the times in Bolivia that he’d checked the hacker’s pulse during the night just to remind himself that they were still alive.

Roque came back first and Pooch had to sprint across the room and pry the gun out of Cougar’s hand to stop him from shooting the explosives expert again. But then, Jensen’s body jerked back to life, and it was as if the rest of the world no longer existed.

Cougar laid the hacker on his side across his lap, rubbing calming circles over his back as Jensen coughed and retched up blood. He held onto him long after Jensen’s body stopped convulsing and had just slumped over the smaller man. The sniper kept up a steady stream of Spanish, too quiet for the others to hear, even though the hacker couldn’t understand most of what he said, it seemed to help calm the younger man down.

 

Clay watched them over the next few days before their next mission, seeing the way the hacker orbited around Cougar, closer than before, as though the sniper had a gravitational pull, and he wondered how he’d missed it before that point in time.

More so, he wondered how the two of them still didn’t see it.


	9. Drowning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for my beta, quandong_crumble, since she said that this chapter gave her the chills.
> 
> I've started borrowing things from the comic now, other than random lines of dialogue. Borrowing basic ideas and changing them to suit me.   
> Hope it doesn't offend anyone.

The tally sheet earned a few more marks on it over the months leading into winter, mostly next to Jensen’s name. Roque took a bullet during another operation, and was less than impressed when he came back and realised he had two dislocated shoulders from Pooch and Jensen dragging him out of there. The rest ended up with injuries as they usually did, though downtime was severely reduced and no one could find it in them to complain about that.

 

It was after the Winter Mariner incident that it finally seemed like enough was enough. Jensen caught a bullet in the back and tipped over the side of the boat. It was almost three hours before Roque and Pooch managed to find him, face down, floating in the ocean. He’d finally stopped coughing up water by the time that they met up with the rest of the team.

Being Jensen he tried to joke about it, saying they all took their time, that a man could get old waiting to be rescued, but there was a waver in his voice that wasn’t usually there. None of them could imagine what it must have been like coming back to life only to breath in a lung full of water and drown before the ability to move came back again. And judging by the time frame, it had to have happened at least twice before they found him. Jensen shrugged that off with the comment, “I guess that rules out five. That leave nine as our next best guess.”

Cougar launched himself at Jensen as soon as he’d seen him, nearly knocking the younger man over, however the violent embrace was over before Jensen could respond and the sniper was berating him in rapid fire Spanish. Jensen didn’t need to understand the words to know that he was in trouble, the tone of voice, vicious glare and handful of English words that slipped through were enough to figure out that Cougar had had enough of him throwing away his life like he was in some stupid computer game.

 

It was a tense few days that followed with Jensen edging around the sniper, avoiding him as much as possible then giving him the most pathetic kicked puppy looks whenever Cougar wasn’t looking at him. It got to the point where Pooch thought he’d have to intervene and make them apologise to each other, for everyone else’s sake.

In the end, they apologised in their own ways. Cougar found a considerable stash of chocolate in his bag one morning, and a passed out Jensen on his bed.

Pooch watched in mild disbelief as Cougar checked the hacker’s pulse, before settling down on the bed beside him. When Jensen woke up a couple hours later, it was as though nothing had ever gone wrong.

 

Then they found Max.


	10. Collision Path

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This follows directly on from part 1, but hopefully that is easy to tell.

They moved out once Jensen had come back from a chest full of bullets. Everyone else moved to the front of the van except for the hacker, who was passed out in the back, and Cougar.

The last mission had been a success, they had a lock on Max’s location and were gunning for him. Jensen dying had been a minor setback, but then, they were all pretty much used to it by that point, except one particular, silent sniper. It certainly didn’t help that this time, Jensen had put himself in between an AK-47 and the aforementioned sniper.

“You know,” Pooch started from the driver’s seat, keeping his voice low, even though there was little chance of Cougar hearing him. “They keep circling around each other, they get closer, then further away, and one of these days, their orbits are going to cross paths and they’ll collide, and who knows how it’ll go, however it happens, it’ll be explosive.”

“What are you on about?” Roque gave the back of the mechanic’s head a sceptical look.

“Cougs and J. They need to hurry and catch the clue bus, it’s hard work watching them go overprotective until they snap. Cougar gives the cold shoulder like I’ve never seen, J sulks like a four year old, and does stupid stuff like jump in front of bullets that were meant for Cougs.” Pooch elaborated, not taking his eyes off the dirt track they were heading down.

“You could have cut the cryptic bullshit at the beginning.” Roque pointed out with a snarl. “I don’t get Cougar’s big fucking deal. If the idiot likes dying, why not just let him. And what do you mean catch the clue bus? You telling me that they haven’t been fucking each other all this time?”

There was a collective shaking of heads.

“Man, I thought they’d been at it for ages now. No wonder the kid got all weirded out when I asked him about it back in Bolivia. I figured he was just a really strong believer in DADT.”

“You’re all tact.” Aisha rolled her eyes. She didn’t usually get involved in their personal discussions, as a rule, nor did she really care what the relationship status of the Losers were. If she’d wanted that, she would have friended them on Facebook, not teamed up with them to take out Max.

 

Cougar was pretty sure that Jensen was going to be out of it for a while, so he was surprised when he looked up and found blue eyes studying him carefully. Raising one eyebrow slightly he enquired what the matter was.

“You’re pissed off at me again.” It wasn’t a question; Jensen dragged himself to sitting up again, leaning against the side wall of the van, feeling each bump jar his back. “I know you don’t like this, but I’m not so keen on it either. I carried your dead body, for Christ’s sake. And all along, I was terrified that you wouldn’t come back. I know I’ll come back again, I believe that. So, if I want to take a bullet, or seven, for you, I bloody well will, and you’ll suck it up and be grateful that you’re still alive, not pissed at me because I came back to life.”

Cougar tugged his hat down over his eyes; the hacker was right, he was mad at him, the _idiota_ just couldn’t see what he did, that this would all come to an end sometime, and there’d be no coming back. Then where would he be? The team, were all that Cougar had in the world, there wasn’t a family out there waiting for him to go home to after this was all over. He was a soldier, _had_ _been_ a soldier, he had been so sure he’d be a soldier til the end; there was no point planning for the future when it was unlikely that was going to be one. But Jensen, he had something to live for and to go home to at the end. That he’d be so reckless with that irked Cougar, and scared him more than he’d ever admit.

Jensen huffed, throwing the blanket off despite the cold, “Yeah, real mature, Cougar, give me the even more silent treatment.”

Cougar knew that his attitude wasn’t helping, but he didn’t know how often he could watch his friend die. His best friend, _his_ Jensen. “For your own good. That was your eighth time, one more!”

“We don’t know that, it was just a guess, there is nothing to back it up.” Jensen retorted, “We don’t even know if it will be the same for each of us. What if I’d let you get shot today and you didn’t come back? We can’t finish this mission without you. Clay needs you to get Max. We know where he is now, my skills aren’t as essential as yours. I haven’t risked my life at any point in anyway that I wouldn’t have if there was no chance of coming back. The first two were just lucky shots and bad luck. The third? Do you expect me to have done nothing? It was Beth, for fucks sake! I had to save her. Okay, so maybe the fourth was just silly, but does that really matter now? Five, six and seven I didn’t have a choice with. If I could have avoided drowning twice, I would have. Do you have any idea how scared I was? Waking up and breathing water. There was nothing I could do!”

“And eight? You should have let me get shot.” Cougar didn’t look at the hacker, hat tipped down, he didn’t want to see those blue eyes, because he knew if he did, he’d give in and forgive the blond idiot.

“Fuck, man,” Jensen let out a resigned sigh, “I shouldn’t have, so I didn’t. I couldn’t watch you die again, couldn’t risk the chance that you weren’t coming back. Don’t think I’d cope without you. I need you, Cougs, you keep me grounded as much as Jess and Beth, and they aren’t talking to me either right now, this is all a little too Twilight Zone for them to handle. They’ll come around, but in the meantime, I need you, Cougs, now and later, more than a big tough ex-special forces badass hacker should, I’ll admit that, so don’t go pointing out that I’m a sook.”

The sniper finally looked over; Jensen sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs, eyes large and too blue. He gave in, like he knew he would. “Not easy for me either, _idiota_. No more, _si_?”

Jensen gave him a dead man’s grin, one that didn’t reach his eyes, that sad distracted smile that Cougar had never wanted to see again. “I can’t promise anything like that.”


	11. Get Out

Jensen was right not to make promises he couldn’t keep. Cougar knew without a doubt, that if that _hijo de puta_ ever got out of there, he would never forgive him for this.

“Jensen, get your arse out of there!” Clay’s voice came over the comm line, authoritative and slightly frantic.

“Kind of tied up right now, Colonel, got an old pal here who has decided that he doesn’t really like us being here.” Jensen’s attempt at light-heartedness came across a little strangled.

“Cougar, have you got eyes on him.”

“Negative, boss.” Cougar scanned the area again through his sight; there was no sign on the blond hacker, no sign of Max either.

“Colonel Clay, seems you boys just don’t know when to quit. Found your hacker poking around in my business.”

“Max! Give it up, you’re surrounded, none of your men are left, and there’s nowhere for you to run to.”

“I wouldn’t say that, Colonel, I have one of your boys here with me, I know you Clay, you’re one of the good guys, you wouldn’t risk the life of one of your boys to get me, that’s why you failed in LA. It’s why you’ll fail here. You care too much, Colonel, that is your downfall.”

Cougar scanned again; he tried to calm the racing of his heart, taking a deep breath and holding it for a moment. He was watching the building that Jensen had disappeared into, but other than the mercenaries that were working for Max, there hadn’t been a lot of movement. The barely suppressed panic had started to set in after Jensen had gone quiet ten minutes before, after saying that he’d found another snuke. It didn’t matter that chances were Jensen couldn’t die, or at least, wouldn’t stay dead. That didn’t matter. What mattered was that Jensen had run off into the building without even thinking about it, like he usually did. Cougar caught a flicker of movement in one of the windows, jerking his rifle back around to get another look.

Jensen appeared in the window, hands behind his head, looking bashful and resigned, more so than scared. His eyes locked onto Cougar’s position, even though there was no way that he’d be able to see the sniper at that distance. Max stood behind him, and Cougar could only guess that he must have a gun on the hacker, otherwise he wouldn’t be behaving nearly as well.

“I see him, boss.” Cougar spoke quietly through the comms, trying to keep his relief out of his voice. He knew Max could hear them.

“What’s going on, Cougar? Tell me what..” Clay’s voice was cut off by two other voices.

“I have no qualms taking Corporal Jacob Jensen’s life.” Came Max’s voice, followed closely by the hacker’s.

Jensen muttered in a mixture of English and broken Spanish, one language he’d never managed to master. “Take the shot, Cougs. Perfect line up, can’t lose this one. Idiot has left himself wide open.”

Cougar tried to sight up, he couldn’t get a decent shot past Jensen, the younger man’s body blocking out Max. “I can’t.”

The grin that spread across Jensen’s face was enough of an indication that he had a crazy idea running through his mind. “Sure you can. Right shoulder, you’ll get him. You always get your target.”

He still hesitated, that was Jensen down there, asking him to shoot him, to shoot through him. “Jake, I won’t shoot you.”

“Cougar? Jensen? What is going on?” Clay sounded almost desperate.

“Just do it, Cougs, no time to argue. It’s non-lethal, I’ll heal again, before you even get down here to pick me up. You can do this. Besides, I’d rather it was you than him.”

It was like Jensen was looking right down his scope back at him. Cougar breathed in, licked his bottom lip and breathed out, sifting his crosshair away from the hacker’s face to line up with his right shoulder.

“Just take the fucking shot, Cougar. It’ll be a love tap in comparison to what I’ve been through so far, and let’s face it, you’ve wanted to shoot me for ages. Well, I figured with the looks you give me, you either wanted to kiss me or kill me, so here’s your chance to do one of those.”

Cougar could see the rise and fall of Jensen’s chest, could imagine the echo of his heartbeat that he used to feel against his spine those nights in Bolivia. It had all changed since they started chasing Max. Again, Max had stolen something from them that he hadn’t noticed until then. “ _Lo siento, mi amigo.”_

He pulled the trigger to the chorus of Clay demanding to know what was going on. He saw the bullet catch Jensen in the shoulder, and heard the burst of expletives that erupted over the comm line. He watched as the hacker wheeled back and then disappeared from sight as everything went quiet.

“Jake? Jake, talk to me.” Cougar couldn’t handle the silence, torn between staring through the scope and waiting for a sign of life, and packing up and getting down there as soon as he could.

“Fuck, Cougs, I would have much preferred a kiss.” Jensen’s voice came over the comms, tight with pain. “But you got him. Cougar man, you got him.”

“We’re coming in to get you, Jensen, sit tight, try to stop the bleeding, we’ll be there soon. Cougar, you got eyes on him, give us directions to him.” Clay’s voice sounded like a sigh of relief mixed with strong disbelief of the situation.

“Ah, negative there boss. We’ve got another vibrating Easter egg from hell in here. You lot need to haul arse and get as far away as possible. You know what the blast radius was of the last one.”

“Jake, no… This is number nine.” Cougar felt the panic grip tighter, his heart hammering hard against his chest. Jensen had known the snuke was there, he knew that there was the risk of it detonating if Max was compromised. He knew it was there and he still made Cougar take the shot. He knew that there was no way out, and still he’d lied. “You knew, bastard! Jensen, get out of there!”

“Get your arse out of there now Jensen, that’s an order!” Clay barked.

“Negative boss, there isn’t enough time. I’m already battling with this thing to try and give you more time. Now, take it, and get out. It was a snuke that started this, and it could very well be a snuke that will finish it. Don’t get caught in the blast radius. Roque, Pooch, get everyone out of here.” Jensen’s voice wavered slightly, breath hitching with pain. “I’m sorry Cougs, knew you’d never take the shot if you knew that the snuke was live, now get out of there.”

“Don’t do this, Jake, get out.”

“No can do, Cougs, now make sure you get that sexy Hispanic arse of yours out of here, and I’ll see you on the other side. And, if I don’t come back, Cougar, I want you to look after Jessie and Beth for me. Promise me that, okay?”

“ _Si_. Come back, Jake.”


	12. Nothing Left

Cougar was still staring at the window through his scope when the van pulled up and Clay and Roque had to drag him into the back, struggling and cursing at them in Spanish.

The explosion rocked the van, almost throwing it off of the dirt track, until Pooch managed to get the vehicle back under control. Cougar demanded they go back straight away. No one commented on the harsh emotions that were present in his voice, or the way he’d pulled his hat right down over his eyes. Roque didn’t comment when he noticed the way that Cougar rubbed his eyes when they stood on the edge of the crater.

There was nothing left, just an empty crater, no sign of the building that had been there. No sign of Max. No sign of Jensen.

Aisha wanted to leave, after they didn’t find any evidence that Max had escaped. Pooch was torn between wanting to get back to Jolene, to prove that he was alive and that it was all over, and the need to find Jensen. Roque was itching to get his life back, talking to Clay in hushed tones, trying to figure out what the next move was.

Cougar set up with his scope, scanning the crater, looking for any signs of life. He refused to move, refused to talk to any of them, just crouched there, watching and waiting.

After the first hour, Aisha was even more impatient to get out of there. Two hours passed and there was no sign of Jensen. Cougar left his post to climb down into the crater. Another hour passed and Roque went down there to bring him back. Clay tried talking to the sniper, tried to discuss the option that maybe the hacker wasn’t going to come back. But Cougar refused to leave. In the end, they set up camp, a discreet distance away from the crater, and waited to see what happened.

Cougar missed the noise. The silence he usually relished in when he could find it, those quiet moments he’d get when he set up with his rifle, seemed oppressive. He missed the chatter, the endless rambling that only half of which he could understand, the tapping of keys, the humming, the bad singing that annoyed everyone. He wanted the noise back, needed the distraction, but there was nothing to fill the silence. Nothing that filled it correctly. He missed Jensen, he was so angry at him, there was no mistaking that. It was the hacker’s own fault that it had happened, but his missed him; there was a hollow emptiness tucked under his ribs that made it hard to breathe, hard to concentrate on what the rest of the team were doing.

Pooch sat up with Cougar for half the night when the sniper refused to go to sleep. Roque appeared early in the morning with coffee, too bitter and not hot enough, but he sat there next to the sniper with his whetstone and sharpened his knives. He didn’t talk, which Cougar was thankful for; he felt stretched so tight that he was sure that if anything tipped him over the edge he’d have no qualms with shooting any of them.

The day pushed on, the sun tracking across the sky, but bringing very little warmth with it. Clay kept the comms open, putting a call out to Jensen every few hours, with no response. As it got later in the day, Aisha grew more restless, a shouting match starting between her, Clay and Roque. It was hard to tell if Roque just loved disagreeing with the woman on principal, or if he really didn’t agree with leaving, that he wanted to wait until Jensen came back. Pooch refused to drive, taking the keys and spark plugs out of their only vehicle so that no one could leave.

As it dawned on the second day, Cougar knew he had to face the probability that there was no coming back.

That maybe, Jensen was really gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me! 
> 
> There are still two chapters to go.


	13. Static

The static came over the radio a few hours after they’d retreated back to a nearby abandoned farm house. Clay had gotten back in contact with one of his army contacts to see what was going to happen. A call came back a few hours later, there was no evidence of Max’s death, the CIA still denied the reactivation of codename Max. With nothing to go one, the Losers were better off staying dead than getting their lives back; by all accounts, they were responsible for the deaths of twenty-five innocent children.

The static started up while Clay was on the phone, just the occasional squelch to start with, before becoming longer bursts of static. There was something underneath the noise, but Jensen was the one who used to break down and separate the sounds, and he wasn’t there anymore.

Cougar tried his best to ignore the static, but didn’t switch the radio off, not while there was still the faintest possibility that Jensen might come back. He couldn’t bring himself to get in contact with Jessica, neither did it seem that Clay was too keen on having to make that call. They waited, because there was nothing else to do.

They weren’t able to go back to their old lives. They were told that they’d have to go on the run again, find a non-extradition country and hole up there for the rest of their lives. Get new identities, new lives, leave behind everything else.

 

 

Cougar was sitting outside on the veranda, three days after the confrontation with Max, when Pooch came out and sat beside him on the steps. The sniper didn’t look over, staring out into the night, listening to the crackle of static over the radio.

“It’s tough man. We all miss him.” Pooch bumped his fist against the other man’s shoulder.

Cougar nodded once, not looking over, picking up his beer and rolling it between the palms of his hands. Everything still felt too quiet, too empty. There was a space there, everywhere he looked, where there should have been a tall blond hacker. He missed him, and hated him all at once. Jensen would still be there if he hadn’t lied, hadn’t told him that shooting him would be alright.

“You can’t be mad at him Cougs, he did what he thought was right.” There wasn’t much that could be said to make the situation better, Pooch knew that, he felt the loss of Jensen too; J had been one of his best friends. Jolene had loved him. She hadn’t taken it well when he’d told her that Jensen was gone, not quite able to believe that he wouldn’t come back. “We got Max, didn’t we? You got him. But at what price? Things should have gone back to how they were before. This was supposed to be the end. Now I have to uproot my family and create a whole new life somewhere else.”

Of course it didn’t end the way it should have. Pooch should have been going home to his wife and son, getting a job, setting up a mechanic workshop, or driving. Clay and Aisha should have sorted out their problems and fucked each other into some semblance of a relationship. Roque should have disappeared onto an island somewhere, worked security at a fancy club set up only for the tourists. Jensen should have gone back to his sister and niece, coached junior soccer, started developing his own games, or creating websites, hacking into the CIA or the Pentagon in his spare time. Cougar should have been heading for the boarder, getting as far away from everything as possible. But he wouldn’t have. He would have followed Jensen, because the hacker would have given him no choice, he would have dragged Cougar along with him, and the sniper would have let him.

“In the end, there is nothing.” Cougar murmured against the mouth of his beer bottle before taking a swig.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that he’s gone. I mean, he wouldn’t cope well with finding out he isn’t getting his life back. Can you imagine Jess just leaving her life behind and moving her daughter to some other country? She loves her younger brother, loved, but I don’t know if she would be willing to move for him.” Pooch mused, sounding too far away.

Cougar knew it was true, Jessica would do a lot for her brother, but he knew Jensen would never have asked her to relocate herself and Beth. He would disappear and check in with them from a distance. It would have been hard for him to not be there for Beth, but he would have done what was best for them. “I can’t forgive him. Or myself.”

Pooch reached over and patted the sniper gently on the shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, man. You didn’t kill him.”

“No, but he made me shoot him knowing he wouldn’t get out. He asked me to look after his _familia_. He knew.” Cougar set his beer down and stood up, taking a few steps out into the dark, hands tucked into his pockets. “That’s unforgiveable.”

“It’s better not to dwell on shit like that, Cougar, Jake didn’t pull this just so you could beat yourself over it.” Pooch knew there was only so much he could say, he had his own problems. He had a wife and baby to relocate.

The static picked up on the radio, a sudden sharp burst that caused Pooch the jump. Cougar looked around slowly at the handheld that was sitting on the steps where he’d left it. The static cut off suddenly, and through the sudden silence came a familiar voice, singing across the radio.

“ _Helloooo, is it me that you are looking for?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go. And a deleted scene, once it has been beta'd.


	14. Don't Ask, Won't Tell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of Heaven's Bouncers. 
> 
> I want to thank everyone who bothered to stop by and read this, an even bigger thanks if you stuck with it the whole way through.   
> Extra big thanks to quandong_crumble for the beta work, and Cougars_catnip for commenting ALL THE TIME! I luffles you both so much!

They picked Jensen up five miles out from the detonation site. He grinned and clambered into the van, naked, shivering and blue lipped, giving Clay a hard time about leaving him behind. Pooch grinned at him through the rear-view mirror and cranked the heating up full bore, Aisha gave him a blanket to wrap around himself, Roque pulled him into a rough one armed hug, before rubbing his knuckles against the hacker’s scalp. Clay gave Jensen a slap on the shoulder and welcomed him back. Cougar sat in the passenger seat and refused to make eye contact. It didn’t matter that Jensen was back, he was still pissed off at him.

Jensen was quick to add another tally beside his name on the chart, declaring with an uneasy laugh that it seemed nine was wrong too.

Pooch left early the morning after, saying he’d get in contact with them once he was out of the country; he’d heard Antigua was nice that time of year. Roque slipped out one night, Cougar was the only one who saw him leave, but he didn’t ask where the scarred man was going, and Roque made no effort to tell him.

Clay and Aisha argued over what they were going to do, until Aisha put a bullet between the Colonel’s eyes and declared their dance was over. 

It was little surprise that they went back to fucking each other’s brains out when Clay was back up and running again.

Jensen called his sister and talked for several hours while Cougar pretended he wasn’t listening. The hacker knew that he had to leave, to stay dead, but Jess said she couldn’t just uproot her life and move with him. He didn’t push the matter. Jess and Beth didn’t need him, not the same way he needed them. He was the one who desperately needed family.

Clay watched the two remaining members of his team, the hacker and the sniper, who’d pushed so far away from each other he was worried that the damage to their friendship was irreversible. He knew that Cougar hadn’t forgiven Jensen for making him shoot him; though the hacker didn’t seem to know what he’d done wrong.

The fourth day after Jensen had come back, he walked out of the farm house early in the morning and just kept going. Clay didn’t need to order Cougar to go and bring him back; the sniper slipped out an hour later to track him down.

The two of them returned the next morning, the hacker silent while Cougar informed Clay they were leaving, not saying anything about what had transpired in the previous twenty-four hours. They were closer than ever; Jensen hunched over, pressed against the sniper’s side as they gathered their stuff to leave.

Jensen stopped at the door, looking at the score sheet he’d kept tally on, before looking over his shoulder at Clay and Aisha. “Hey, boss, don’t take this the wrong way or nothing, but I don’t think I ever want to see you again.”

“Understood, Corporal.” Clay nodded, watching as the younger man added another mark beside his name, bringing the total up to ten. Beside it he wrote the initials D.A.W.T. before slipping out the door and not looking back. The sniper followed, throwing a patented Cougar glare at the score sheet as he went, pausing long enough for Clay to catch his attention.

“What’s it stand for?”

Cougar looked back over at him, shouldering his rifle. With a casual shrug he pulled his hat down low over his eyes. “Don’t ask, won’t tell.”

Jensen was waiting out by the Jeep that they’d kept with them, leaning against the driver’s side door, a shadow of his old grin on his lips. “Where to, Cougs?”

Cougar stopped right in front of him, standing closer than usual, tipping his head forward just enough so the brim of his hat nudged the hacker’s shoulder. “Anywhere but here, _mi amor_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somewhere is the near future, the deleted scene for what happened between the time Jensen left and Cougar brings him back will be posted up here. There is also potential for a sequel later on down the track, which will probably be a Cougar/Jensen centric about what they do afterwards/how they are coping (or not coping) with their new lives. I don't know yet. If ther is enough interest out there, I'll probably work on it. 
> 
> Thanks again for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> It was also initially influenced by the song Never Gonna Kill Us by The SmashUp! in that, I for several months every time I heard that song, I thought "I should write a Losers fic where they just don't die." 
> 
> I decided to post this in sections, rather than as one large lump of a story. Barring loss of internet connection, I should post one section a day. they vary in length, so bear with me, please!


End file.
